"There is only one power that determines the course of history . . . the power of ideas." — Ayn Rand

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

How Government Regulation Hinders Product Oversight and Harms Consumers

The tragic case of the tainted medication produced by New England Compounding Center, which resulted in at least twenty-five deaths and hundreds sickened, highlights a little-recognized danger inherent in government regulation.

What is that danger? Find out by reading the rest of my Objective Standard blog post Government Regulations Hinder Quality Control and Harm Consumers. I would add this:In a free market, there would be no assumption of a government seal of approval. Every patient and doctor, rather than a handful of government bureaucrats, would effectively be his own industry watchdog to whom private ratings companies would be all too ready and willing to provide a wealth of information on products and companies. That's a lot of oversight.In the NECC case, the company’s deteriorating manufacturing quality went undetected in the market until hundreds were sickened and dozens died. The false sense of security that infects the market, as evidenced by that Maryland doctor, is a prime factor in this tragedy. In an unregulated market, where the principle “buyer beware” rules and buyers know it, incompetent companies like NECC would be quickly exposed, rather than allowed to slip “under the radar.”This catastrophe is seen as stemming from lack of regulation, rather than from the very nature of the government regulatory apparatus itself. But as the NECC case shows, government regulation hinders rather than enhances product oversight, potentially harming the very patients the FDA is supposed to protect.Related Reading:"Regulating Business"--the Good and the BadDon’t Regulate the Innocent, Punish the GuiltyWhere Does Valid Law End and Regulation Begin?

About Me

Greetings and welcome to my blog. My name is Michael A. (Mike) LaFerrara. I sometimes use the pen or "screen" name "Mike Zemack" or "Zemack" in online activism, such as posted comments on articles. “Zemack” stands for the first letters of the names of my six grandchildren. I was born in 1949 in New Jersey, U.S.A., where I retired from a career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries, and still reside with my wife of 45 years. The purpose of my blog is the discussion of a wide range of topics relating to human events from the perspective of Objectivism, the philosophy of reason, rational self-interest, and Americanism originated by Ayn Rand.

As Rand observed: “The professional intellectual is the field agent of the army whose commander-in-chief is the philosopher.” I am certainly not the philosopher. But neither am I a field agent, or general. I am a foot soldier in that Objectivist army that fights for an individualist society in which every person can live in dignified sovereignty, by his own reasoned judgment, for his own sake, in that state of peaceful coexistence with his fellow man that only capitalist political and economic freedom can provide. While I am a fully committed Objectivist, my opinions are based on my own understanding of Objectivism, and should not be taken as definitive “Objectivist positions.” For the full story of my journey toward Objectivism, see my Introduction.

One final introductory note: I strongly recommend Philosophy, Who Needs it, which highlights the inescapable importance of philosophy in every individual's life. I can be reached at mal.atlas@comcast.net. Thanks, Mike LaFerrara.

Recommended Essays/Videos

Quotes I Like

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.—Francisco d'Anconia

I love getting older...I get to grow up and learn things. Madalyn, 5 years old, Montesorri student, and my grand-daughter

The best thing one can do for the poor is to not become one of them. Author Unknown

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Francis Bacon

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Ronald Reagan

Thinking is hard work. If it weren't, more people would do it. Henry Ford

Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. Ayn Rand